Tigers Make It Back-To-Back Titles At GoshenGOSHEN — It's back-to-back sectional titles for the Warsaw boys track and field team. The sixth-ranked Warsaw Tigers entered last year's Goshen Sectional as a contender and came out on top, but this year, they entered as heavy favorites and left with the same result, winning their 23rd sectional trophy. "There was no sneaking in this year," Warsaw coach Matt Thacker said. "It's kind of different when everyone's looking at you. When the pressure's there, the expectations, the kids responded." The Tigers won the sectional title with 130 points, while Elkhart Memorial was second with 95.5 points and Fairfield was third with 89. Winning the sectional crown, the Tigers won six of the possible 16 events, including every distance event, punctuated with a meet record in the 1600 relay, the last event of the night. With the championship already wrapped up, Warsaw's 1600 relay of sophomore Gabe Furnivall, senior Spencer Rheinhardt, sophomore Ryan Goon and junior Wyatt Jones took first in 3:20.93, eclipsing Central Noble's 1977 sectional meet record of 3:21.2. "To have the meet wrapped up, and then go out after (the record), that's just the type of character our athletes we have,” Thacker said. "It's just a pleasure to be around." On top of being a part of that record-setting relay, Rheinhardt, who'll be running at Notre Dame next season, was also a member of the winning 3200 relay with sophomore Ismael Calderon, freshman Michael Compton and sophomore Ellis Coon and won the 800 in 1:55.91. "I came in with a (personal record) in that 800, then obviously our PR in the (1600 relay) set a meet record, so that felt good," Rheinhardt said. "Our (3200 relay) didn't go quite as planned, but we still came out with the win. It was a great meet." The 800 was one of the tighter races, featuring last year's champion, Fairfield senior Dillon Hinen, as well as Rheinhardt and Warsaw junior Jacob Poyner, who had the two-fastest seed times, respectively. Close throughout, Rheinhardt began to pull away over the last 100 meters, but Poyner and Hinen were tight throughout, as Poyner nipped Hinen by two-hundredths-of-a-second. But while Poyner and Hinen were battling it out for second, Rheinhardt was only focused on the finish line. "I'm just running," Rheinhardt said. "I don't look back. Just go as hard as you can, as fast as you can and finish across the line." Outside of Rheinhardt's win in the 800, the 1600 relay's victory and Robert Murphy's first-place finish in the 3200, Warsaw's other three victories were repeated wins from a year ago. Among the defended titles were the 3200 relay's win, Poyner winning the 1600 (4:18.83) and sophomore Stephen Kolbe claiming the high jump title, clearing 6-4. As a freshman, Kolbe won the sectional crown by clearing 6-7, but 6-4 was good enough this time around. "I thought I should have gotten 6-6, but I'm fine with a win," he said. "I'm definitely going to go for 6-6, 6-8 at regionals." The regional will be at Kokomo, where not only sectional victors will participate, but top four finishers as well. And Warsaw has plenty of those as well. "We had some good things happen," Thacker said. "We had some guys score points in areas we may not have thought they would." Wawasee finished eighth at the meet, but did have junior Jake Schwartz finish fourth in the shot put and freshman Clayton Cook advanced to the regional with a second-place finish in the 110 hurdles. While reaching Thursday's regional is nice, the Warsaw squad has very high aspirations. "We're looking to take pretty much all of our distance events to state and just see what we can do," Rheinhardt said of reaching the level beyond regionals. "See how many podiums we can get. We're really excited about it." With the group he has, Thacker isn't doubting what it can do, as they'll now look to defend last year's Kokomo Regional title. "We just have a solid group of guys, as far as character, as far as mental toughness, as far as just wanting to do well," he said. "It's just a lot of fun."
